


Knightwing Restorations Ltd. (One Little Slip)

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Character of Color, Canon Disabled Character, Gen, No Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Not Prime Time, Not Prime Time 2019, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Canon, Post-Canon for Defenders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-02-21 14:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18704275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: The effects of the Infinity War hit New York, and Misty and Colleen do what must be done. This is what happens to them.





	Knightwing Restorations Ltd. (One Little Slip)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maidenjedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/gifts).



A fine dark dust seeps through every crack in the world of New York City. All over Harlem, Misty Knight watches as people dissolve into a thick, chunky mist that settles on the pavement like dark chalk outlines.

Her stomach turns and she reaches into her pocket for her cell phone. Before she even calls Luke, she calls Colleen.

Colleen’s phone is busy, which isn’t something that Misty’s even thought about happening in years. She hangs up and calls back and gets an operator’s voice saying that the lines in the city are too busy to get her call to Colleen.

This instantly makes calling Colleen the most important thing that Misty could ever do in this moment. Her heart is pounding and her arm throbs in time with it. She needs this call to go through.

“Oh, thank God,” Misty finally says when the call works and Colleen picks up. Misty is power-walking through the nearly empty streets. “Are you seeing this?”

“I am seeing it. People started screaming, cars all ran into each other, so I went to the window. I’m upstairs but people literally melted into the sidewalk.”

“I’m on the ground. It’s bad, Colleen. We’ve gotta do something.”

“Did you call Luke yet?”

Misty shifts uncomfortably where she stands. “Uh. Not yet.”

Colleen’s tone is knowing. “I get it. You’re going to have to, though.”

So it turns out that this can actually get worse, because now Misty’s heart is dropping into her stomach. “Yeah. I just, uh…”

“Listen, Misty. Be brave. I know you are all the time. Just swallow your pride for a second and call him. It should be you.”

Misty knows she’s right. It’s going to have to happen.

She’s almost relieved when it turns out that Luke doesn’t pick up, until she imagines him in a pile of dust somewhere in Harlem.

She keeps making calls, including another one to Colleen: “He didn’t pick up.”

“Neither did Danny.”

“Oh. Shit.”

There’s a long silence before they say at the same time, “Do you think they were all together?”

*~*~*

“I’m coming over right now,” Misty says. “We’ll come up with a plan. We’ll figure this out.”

Colleen is mostly quiet, but that’s all right. Misty is good in a crisis, and she knows Colleen is too. They’re just going to have to both deal with this in their own ways. Danny means a lot to Colleen and--

“I’ll be there as quick as I can,” she adds.

The power-walk becomes a run. Misty goes faster and faster, especially once it occurs to her that she probably can’t safely travel by car right now. Damn. Right about now, some superpowers would be great. She’s about ready to fly if it means getting to Colleen faster.

*~*~*

Colleen asks her to stay on the phone, just to be safe, and then she leaves Danny’s and they meet at a central location in the middle, walking toward each other on autopilot.

As it turns out later on, neither of them remembers much about that place until they are coming up for air one day and realize it's is right across the street from the building with their rinky-dink office in it, one they try to keep up a little better than Jessica did for her own.

They take a moment to process that.

"Can you believe it? That's the coffee place we met at in the middle of hell on earth!" Misty says. "It's right there!"

Colleen shivers. Yet of course it is. This is New York, and as big as it is, it's full of coincidences just like that.

Then they get back to work almost as quickly as they stopped in the first place.

Because the Defenders are gone--poof--disappeared in the blast or whatever it is. Matt, Danny, Luke and Jessica don’t pick up ever again. 

Neither of them have any type of powers, and they certainly didn’t get any as a parting gift related to the disappearance of their friends and Colleen’s partner, but New York City still sprawls out below and in front of them, waiting for someone, anyone, to do something.

Trish Walker stays on the airwaves, just as strung out and stressed out as she’s always been, although Misty and Colleen can only guess at how deep that rabbit hole really goes. They pay attention for a few weeks, when a sort of disaster plan rolls out related to the disintegrating people.

Then, somehow, life has to go on and they don’t have emotional bandwidth for Trish’s type of news. They’re busy on the ground.

*~*~*

Misty starts putting her investigative experience to use right away. She’s fielding calls from the precinct, but she knows she needs to be there for Colleen just like Colleen’s been there for her in her lowest moments. And Misty won’t abandon Harlem, either. As much as she has always been dubious about Luke’s involvements in things, she knows that if he’s gone someone’s got to step up, with or without the benefit of powers.

She has the most connections to a crime-solving background, and at first Colleen is a mess besides all of that. They eat pizza and chocolate while Misty takes notes on the unsolved cases around the city, the people who come out of the woodwork to ask for their help.

They don’t always get the types of cases that Jessica did, but when they have to go on a recon job that reminds them of her they hoist a drink in her honor and then get back to work. When it’s a deep legal mess they can still call Foggy, although the calls are short and extremely bittersweet. 

Misty helps them cut through cases quickly, and at least she can lean on what she knows best to get the job done. 

New York is never quite the same--and neither are either of them. They pick up the pieces because they have to.

Whether Colleen is hidden behind a fire escape taking pictures or Misty is fielding a case through an old contact, they stay on the job. It’s as if this kind of work always fit them, and they fit each other. They’re worthy partners, and they throw themselves into this work.

When no one is calling, Colleen watches Misty box against a punching bag or teaches her the martial arts she can accomplish easily with three limbs. There’s no time to waste, but Misty makes sure to be a quick study, and their trust in each other grows. Together they’re an unstoppable investigative duo once Misty’s able to teach Colleen what she knows of crime fighting both officially and unofficially.

When faced with a physical foe, the two of them move in tandem, anticipating each other easily. Misty is still a force to be reckoned with in a fight, and the circumstances don’t allow her to wallow anymore either. They keep busy, and they send word out through the appropriate channels. In a way, they’re what’s left of The Defenders, and their combined skills will have to fill the void left when the superheroes disappeared.

They have no other choice.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from One Little Slip by Barenaked Ladies, the Chicken Little theme (...sky is falling...) I am a nerd.
> 
> If you see parallels they may be there on purpose, on the part of Marvel or myself.
> 
> I hope you liked this!


End file.
